Tag Archives: Conrad Mbewe

I wrote this review a year ago and was posted on another site which currently is not active. I am posting it here for those who will find it helpful but cannot access it on the other site.

Reviewing Dr. Conrad Mbewe’s Pastoral preaching: Building a People for God is a very huge task for me mainly for two reasons: first, Mbewe is not only a friend but also a seasoned and gifted preacher who has been faithfully preaching the gospel for over 30 years while I am a fledging preacher. Second, I am a Presbyterian and Conrad is a Baptist and as they say, “Baptists are good preachers while Presbyterian are good scholars” (please take that with a grain of salt).

However, I have decided to undertake this exercise because I believe that Pastoral Preaching is one of the great books that pastors, more especially in Africa, need to read and apply the helpful insights and principles therein to their pastoral ministries. As far as I know, this isprobably the first published book on preaching written by an African Reformed preacher apart from Dr. O. Palmer Robertson’s Preaching Made Practical. I always consider Robertson as an African owing to many years he has spent in Africa training preachers and Christian leaders and also because he wrote Preaching Made Practical with a true African touch.

Pastoral Preaching was released at the beginning of 2017 by Langham Preaching Resources. In the book, Mbewe begins by highlighting why he decided to write. He had noticed that more often than not the preaching in Africa is not producing believers who are spiritually mature because more pulpits are occupied by motivational speakers rather than preachers. The important role of preaching has also been replaced by exorcism services and entertaining “worship” in many churches. Although the problem is not unique to Africa, the continent scores highly on the chart.

Mbewe has also strove to make the book more relevant and easily understood by an African readership. He is totally aware that the essence of effective communication is good understanding of your audience. For instance, Mbewe substitutes the expression, “the tip of an iceberg,” with an illustration of thatching a house (p. 1). Then he goes on to note, “As your read this book you will soon discover that my primary audience is pastors serving in Africa. This is deliberate. Pastors in the Western world have so many Bible colleges and seminaries and so many books on pastoral ministry that to write for them would be like adding a drop to an ocean” (p.4). He then adds, “I appreciate the principles being taught (by Western authors) but I often find the authors shooting over the heads of those who live in my own neighborhood, who have not been exposed to the thought patterns and idioms of the Western world…So, what I have done in this book is basically to take the same principles and clothe them in the African attire” (p.4).

Mbewe also makes it clear at the beginning of the book that Pastoral Preaching is not a homiletics book. (Homiletics can basically be defined as the art of preparing and delivering sermons). Rather, his book is concerned with how preaching should be done in a pastoral context. “In this book I am addressing a number of key areas related to preaching in a pastoral context” (p. 2). This means that if one is looking for a book that guides you through the stages of sermon preparation, this book is not ideal for that undertaking. Yet, despite not concentrating on preparing and delivering sermons, in chapters 13-15, Mbewe takes time to briefly guide the preacher on how he can develop sermons from narratives (stories), didactic passages (passages that contain instructions), and poetic and prophetic passages of the Bible. In chapter 11, he also tackles how a preacher can craft an introduction, body and conclusion. Mbewe, further, discusses the effective use of illustrations and applications. He concludes the chapter by writing on how a preacher can modulate his voice and gestures and maintain a good eye contact.

Pastoral Preaching reveals the pastoral heart of Mbewe. As you read the book, you realize that he is not a hireling but an undershepherd of Christ who fully understands and cares for the challenges that pastors and Christians in Africa face. He endeavors to propose some measures that might alleviate these problems. For instance, for the lack of formal training for many pastors in Africa, he encourages the old but trusted approach of having men trained under a more mature and godly minister. Obviously, he does not argue that formal training is irrelevant; however, in cases where it is impossible to attain such training, this approach will suffice.

Mbewe also points out the need for congregations to fulfill their biblical mandate to take care and support those who labour among them faithfully despite that many African Christians live with limited resources. In chapters 17-18, he discusses the importance of godliness in the lives of ministers. He gives an ever-timely admonition: “It is vital to remember that as a pastor you are first of all a Christian. You are a sheep before you are a shepherd. Therefore, all the pleas in Scripture for a Christian to live a godly life apply to you as well…You live in a fallen world and struggle with the remains of your own fallen nature, and so you must pursue holiness in the same way that every Christian is urged to do so” (p. 163).

One area, which I wish Mbewe, could have given more thought is the distinction he makes between evangelistic and pastoral preaching. “Evangelistic preaching is needed to bring sinners into the kingdom” and pastoral preaching is “to help those who have come to Christ to grow spiritually” (p.9). I found this distinction to be somewhat confusing in the sense that it seems to imply that evangelistic preaching is not pastoral. Mbewe somehow realizes that and points out, “Although I have made a clear distinction between evangelistic and pastoral preaching, I am not suggesting that pastors need to choose one over the other. Pastors are called to do both…So, the two types of preaching are not necessarily mutually exclusive” (p. 14). He further discusses the difference in chapter 2 as he uses the illustration of a pastor as a shepherd (p. 18-19).

But this is a small detail compared to the rich gold that my fellow African preachers would mine from the book. I can’t agree more with John MacArthur who observes that the book embodies all the qualities of the preaching ministry of Mbewe, which are clarity, accuracy, thoroughness, courage, insight, and uncompromising faithfulness to the text of Scripture. That is undeniably true of Pastoral Preaching: Building a People for God.

Note: This is a script of today’s podcast. The audio can be accessed here

Welcome to Doctrine for Body and Soul (DBS) hosted by Confex Makhalira. Doctrine for Body and Soul is a Christian podcast, which comes out every Mondays and Fridays. On Mondays the podcast brings you devotions for your encouragement in the walk with the Lord, and on Fridays the podcast analyzes current affairs, more especially, those of Africa, from a Biblical perspective. Thank you for joining us today.

Indeed a warm welcome to the very first episode of Doctrine for Body and Soul. Being a new podcast I need to give some introduction.

First, what is Doctrine for Body and Soul all about? As already mentioned at the beginning, this podcast will be made up of two components. The first component is devotional. Every Monday, the Lord willing, I will be bringing you devotions, which are brief exposition of Bible passages, to help us grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The second component is a commentary from a Biblical perspective on issues affecting believers all over the world, more especially, in Africa. Every Friday, the Lord willing, I will be providing a Biblical worldview analysis on current affairs in our world. It is no secret that the world is increasingly becoming so hostile to Christians that often we are faced with the major question: “How should we then live?” In Friday’s podcasts I will be endeavoring to bring God’s Word to bear on various developments, good or bad, around the globe.

We need to remember as the hymn writer once put it, “This is my Father’s World.” Although sometimes evil seems to gain the upper hand, the truth is that our Triune God is still sitting on the throne and is guiding all the affairs of his world and his Church toward one goal which is to glorify himself. This is why Paul reminds us in that beautiful doxology in Romans 11:33 and 36: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways…For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”

Indeed all things belong to God. This is why again the Psalmist in Psalm 24 reminds us that the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. So let’s not lose sight of this important truth. This is our Father’s world. “O let me never forget. That though the wrong seems so strong, God is the ruler yet.”

Second, why this name, Doctrine for Body and Soul? Well, the word “doctrine” is derived from a Greek word which when translated into English means “teaching” while the phrase “body and soul” means the whole man. Often the Bible uses this phrase to refer to man as being both a spiritual and physical being. So Doctrine for Body and Soul podcast is about the Bible’s teaching regarding our spiritual and physical lives. In other words, this podcast is all about what the Scriptures teach us about our spiritual lives as citizens of heaven and also our physical lives as citizens this world.

Third, who is the man behind this podcast? Confex Makhalira is a trained broadcaster and a teacher of the Bible. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies with a minor in Radio Communications from the African Bible College in Lilongwe, Malawi. He is currently in his final year of studies for a Master of Divinity at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Having given this introduction, I would like us to look at this story from Zambia. In his blog post last week, Pastor Conrad Mbewe of Kabwata Baptist Church in Lusaka, Zambia, bemoaned the growing trend among Christians there to skip church on Sundays in order to attend a football or soccer match in which the Zambian National Team is playing. Pastor Mbewe wrote on his blog, Letter from Kabwata “Zambians need to ask themselves a heart-searching question: Could it be that football has become our idol?”…When we spend a whole week anticipating a football match instead of the worship of God on the Lord’s Day and then when the day comes we abandon the worship of God in order to shout and jump and scream in a stadium (or at home in front of a television set)…is this not idolatry?”

Then following this post, this week Pastor Mbewe, has blogged another post with the title, “We have lost the sense of God.” In this post he explains that he has been struggling to understand why Christians would prefer going to watch a football match to going to church. He writes, “After my last blog post in which I addressed the issue of believers abandoning going to church on a Sunday in preference for watching a football match, I tossed and turned most of the night. I kept asking myself how believers could do this. I could not understand how even pastors are now joining in this (practice) with a clear conscience. I mean, how?”

As he continued to think through this Pastor Mbewe came to one conclusion: “We have lost the sense of God.” He then continues to observe that this loss of sense of God has come about because of the poor view of God, which many Christians have due to poor worship and preaching in Zambian churches. “When it comes to church…there is very little pausing for a moment of silence to prepare the soul to meet with the living God. You have a band that is already playing as people chat. The worship leader starts with jokes to get the atmosphere exciting. The songs are painfully repetitious of next to nothing—“God brought me from here and has taken me there,” over and over again! The preaching is also deliberately calculated to bring people back next week rather than to bring them face to face with the living God. Hence the preacher behaves more like a superstar than a prophet from God. Can such gimmicks surely give us a sense of God?”

And I would add that this problem is not only in Zambia but throughout the continent of Africa and even throughout the world.

Now one important thing we can learn from the observations of Pastor Mbewe is that if we are to develop a solid Biblical worldview, we need to attend churches where people worship God as he has commanded in his word and where the Bible is preached faithfully. A sound church is indispensable for equipping believers who will honor God in all areas of their lives. This then means that Christians who are not attending health churches can never develop a health Biblical worldview. Therefore, we should never underestimate the grace that God gives to his people through the ordinary means of faithful preaching and God-honoring worship. That’s what all Christians need.